Movie Review: Suicide Squad

Directed by
David Ayer
Written by
David Ayer
Produced by
Charles Roven
Richard Suckle
Running time
123 minutes

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Doesn’t that shit look awesome? Look at that poster. I feel my testicles shrinking in impotent shame as it is. Even the trailer itself was balls to the walls fun in order to cleanse the pallet after DC’s dismally received Dawn of Justice.

Alright. Let’s dial it back a little.

“Avengers Initiative”

Those two words told to Tony Stark at the end of Iron Man set off a change of events that would become more than a footnote in pop culture, it would be an entire milestone, a paradigm shift in the way movies were made. Look at us now! Eight years later and we are still feeling the fallout of Nick Fury’s smug face in the shadows.

Marvel. DC. Image. Darkhorse. These are the four titans of the comic book industry, but the rivalry of the first two is well known and documented. Marvel’s been known for a little more lighthearted camp, while DC has had a consistently darker tone. Part of this is contextually explained by the establishment of Comic Code Authority, and what’s known as the comic book Bronze Age.  These are two giants and it was only natural that they’d bring their rivalry to the silver screen.

Even from the trailers alone, you can see the influence the Christopher Nolan’s Batman trilogy had on DC’s extended universe movies, but the reaction thus far has been very much lukewarm. DC had no problems making movies in the past. It has had quite a pedigree with its Batman and Superman titles, and even lesser known properties like Watchmen and V for Vendetta were received to some acclaim. There’s a heavy, darker tone to them. People die with more frequency and there is a much heavier emphasis on the consequences of the hero’s actions. But this was a whole new ballgame. Man of Steel was the first step in setting up a DC movie universe, but it had more style over substance and did a rather... well, to avoid spoilers, Superman did a few controversial things near the end of the movie that both fans and casuals alike did not agree with. DC’s follow up in the extended universe, the first movie that wholehearted affirmed that DC would be having one at all, was a recently known stinker called Dawn of Justice. It was critically panned by many for a litany of reasons, but we are here for the third film.

Third time’s the charm as they say. To many, Suicide Squad is DC’s last chance to make up for their loses to Marvel in recent years. The magic they held so long ago with Gotham’s gothic art deco design and Superman’s paragon nature is still in memory, but the journeymans have long since faded. Has the talent been lost? Can DC still show the world they can still hold sway with these scummy sacks of entrails given one shot at doing some good in the world?

So, how was the movie?

Amanda Waller (Viola Davis) has a hole so deep that everything dropped in is quickly forgotten. Scum of the earth such as Deadshot (Will Smith), Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie), El Diablo (Jay Hernandez) and several others are left there to rot. They are among company with assassins, thieves, and psychopaths, and each is capable of untold chaos should they ever escape Waller’s grasp. But Waller has a different plan rather than a trial or a bullet. After what happened in the events of Dawn of Justice, Waller wants to assemble a team of the worst criminals on the planet. Expendable, skilled, and vicious to the end, the Suicide Squad is sent into the worst situations possible all in the name of getting the job done and plausible deniability. When one of them goes rogue, Waller assembles her team of the world’s worst heroes to take the interloper down.

On the technical side of things, this is a very well made movie. There is nice, slow cinematography that, even when we’re inside a sterile jail, gives the audience time to drink in the mood. It’s beautifully shot with a top notch soundtrack accompanying the ride the whole way. I’ve always been been one to say that the best cinematographers never let you see their touch; it’s better to think ‘this is a good movie’ rather than ‘this is a good effect/scene’. It’s an immersion thing. While it is good shooting, it’s not great. Nothing really pops out or stands out. CGI is thankfully kept at a minimum, which is good considering how low lit much of the movie is. It’s not Dawn of Justice level dark, but it is dark enough that I strongly advise against seeing this in 3D.

The action is... okay, but could have used some serious work. There is an over reliance on close ups and shakycam that hinders understanding what the hell is happening on screen. The final fight doesn’t suffer this nearly so much but I shouldn’t consciously acknowledge the camera is shaking at any time. Once you recognize that you are watching a movie and not part of a movie, that breaks immersion just a little. It took out some of the fun and it wasn’t helped with several members of the Squad fighting during each fight. Many times I even lost track of where people were in relation to each other. I’m not wowed by the fights. Yet there is a thrill to the carnage. Harley Quinn fights with glea, Deadshot with cold efficiency, and Killer Croc with the savageness of a beast. It’s not just a fight; each one has their own skillset that drew the eye of Waller.

Ayer picked the smarter choice though. Rather than impressive visuals, extended fights, and flashy CGI, the movie is more character based. This is a good thing. There are technically ten members of the Suicide Squad, with Waller and Joker rounding the characters to twelve. That’s a lot of characters to flesh out, but the very nature of the Squad does something I like that helps streamline things. We’re given most of their backstories in Waller’s report to her comrades. Through dossiers and news reports, we see the entire squad’s histories.

Hey, Marvel? Can we get more of this rather than seeing Spiderman’s origin for like the seventh time?

We see everyone’s motivations and personalities in the course of about twenty minutes. Thank god. This was one thing I was scared about on going in. There are a lot of characters, and seeing them all get their tender loving care might bloat the movie. The basics are given in Waller’s report, and when the movie gets to its feet, we can see their personalities and banter take those seeds and evolve. There is a general rule in entertainment you may have heard. Show, don’t tell. It may be personal taste, but I like this telling bit about the characters. Waller is a character who is all business. She has no reason to care about these people, and it shows; it makes sense with her character that little personal feelings and care would leak through. This telling gives audiences a lot of information because of a reasonable means of exposition.

That covers character setup, but how about evolution? People should change over the course of the movie after all. Well... this is where our ideals may differ. I like what they do, but I can see why a lot of critics don’t. With even a glance at Rotten Tomatoes will tell you that some characters may fall flat. I disagree conditionally.

The very nature of the Suicide Squad is a bunch of criminals are brought together to solve impossible missions. Should they fail, they are either thrown under the bus or die in the process, if Waller doesn’t kill them for too much insubordination. The goal of the mission isn’t personal goals, truth, justice, or even doing the right thing. They are doing what they so they don’t die. They hate getting caught, and they hate who is pulling their strings even more.

It’s not about developing as characters, it is about survival. As they go about their mission, they talk, banter, and fight with each other. That is what the Squad does. You’re not going to get some grand learned lesson or moral heel faceturn. It’s all about surviving and getting the mission done.

Yes, it’s a simple idea for character development, but simple does not equal bad. I compare it somewhat to Mad Max: Fury Road. They are being chased by bad guys. Escape the bad guys. That was it for Max. What was important was the journey along the way and the sheer spectacle that came with getting the goal done.

That is not to say I give Suicide Squad a ringing endorsement. I love Harley’s playful banter and subversive manipulation. Smith gives Deadshot a moral compass with his daughter. She gives an apathetic, sociopathic character an Achilles heel. The torment Enchantress feels whenever the witch comes forth is palpable and visceral. These little moments of character development are there, and are pulled off well, but I don’t believe there are enough of them.

You may have seen critic’s reactions. What I am trying to get across is the weakness of these characters is not weak character development, but not enough character development. What is there is strong, but I am left wanting more.

This comes with one exception. One of the characters that interested me most was Jared Leto’s Joker. You may have seen his antics  in the news. Joker is perhaps the most recognizable villain on the planet. He’s been played by famous actors and several Joker movies and comic books have received critical acclaim. This is not someone you take lightly. I was curious how attention would be split between the Squad and Joker himself. Would attention be split too thin between them?

Yup.

If I had to compare Leto’s Joker to another, it would be some mix of Jack Nicholson's and Mark Hamill’s animated Joker. That’s just a guess because he isn’t given enough time to properly get a grasp on what motivates him or his nature. You could argue that he is just crazy, or is like Heath Ledger’s Joker and loves chaos for chaos’ sake, but I have no idea. I can’t really say anything about him other than he loves Harley and absolutely loves what he does, and that second one is just a guess. He should have had much less screen time and given it to the Squad.

I suppose I should take a moment to talk about his acting. Needless to say any and all silver screen Joker will be eclectic and erratic. He is for sure, but his wild mood swings, oscillating voice and laughter, and motivations comes off as strangely disjointed. Something about his performance comes off as strange, and I can’t tell if it’s just not developed enough for me to discern what’s wrong, or if it’s just bad altogether.

Davis has perhaps the strongest performance of all. Tough as nails and hard enough to stare down Batman, she’s excellent in the role. I would have like a woman more heavyset like the Waller from the comics (until she was rewritten as a toothpick of a woman), but her acting is superb. Joel Kinnaman’s Rick Flagg, Waller’s guard dog for the squad, also delivers a strong performance. I smile every time he speaks; you can watch as he just gets more and more tired of the shit he has to put up with babysitting a group of assholes. The last Squad member I’ll touch on is Harley. If you’re like me, you’ll remember dear Harley and her Mistah Jay from the animated series. Robbie gives Harley equal parts ghoulish delight and psychotic ravings that befit a broken mind like hers. There’s a layer of sadness to her that’s heartbreaking to see. How much of the original doctor is in there?

Even in the days before the premiere, there was huge drama surrounding the movie, and I don’t just mean the sword of Damocles hanging above after the failure of Dawn of Justice. This came in minor places like disgruntled fans wishing to shut down Rotten Tomatoes for giving Suicide Squad unfavorable reviews (On a side note, Rotten Tomatoes doesn’t give reviews to movies. It’s an aggregation site that collects other people’s reviews of movies), to Warner Brothers making an alternate cut to the movie behind Ayer’s back.

Suicide Squad comes from the DC universe, but Warner Brothers makes the movies, and the problem here is Warner Brothers made promises. There is a lot of money thrown around in the early days of movie making, especially branded properties that are expected to be a part of shared universe and contain merchandise selling points like Harley Quinn’s costume; studios can’t just push back the release date on a whim with so much money attached to dates and promises. Warners wanted to catch up to Marvel, and so the movie was rushed with a script made too soon. Problems were compounded when the movie’s release date was pushed back. Be it Warners didn’t want to compete with other big name properties like Captain America 3, or the reshoots to add more humor and character, the movie was troubled from the start.

As an editorial by yours truly, I think the biggest problem came when Warners, upon seeing the brand damage Dawn of Justice had caused, sent the film to Trailer Park to make a cut for test audiences. These are the guys that made the awesome teaser trailer for Suicide Squad. You may be thinking that was a good idea, but zoom back. Editing studios like that may cuts to trailers, not movies. It is their job, their bread and butter, to make trailers and chop up the good bits to get people in their seats. You don’t have to worry about coherency, plot, chronology, and characters as much. You may be seeing the problem now; those things are absolutely critical to a movie. It’s not that Trailer Park did a bad job on their trailer, but they are just not cut out to edit a movie. Not only that, the movie went through even more editors before it was released. I was cringing the day before seeing the movie. I dreaded seeing the touch of so many editors on a movie, even though only John Gilroy was credited. It’s not uncommon for multiple cuts of a movie to be screened to select audiences, but it felt like all these decisions were made in fear of financial backers and the inability to recover from the fall of their last movie. To me, this movie had beautiful potential, but its innards were a frankenstein of messy parts, each bit cherry picked by a studio exec.

To wrap up the rant, is it a good movie? I’d say it is. It’s certainly better than Dawn of Justice, and leagues more fun (although more jokes and levity aren’t unwanted). It could have been more fun, the action polished up a bit, and a slight rearranging of priorities when it comes to the characters, but the cast of misfits and lawmen bantering back and forth with each other is the goal of the movie, and that goal is done fair.

No, it is not an exceptional movie in any respect, but it is competent, and even genuinely fun. If this had taken Dawn of Justice’s place, it might have saved the damage done. Do I recommend you see it? Well, do you like a bunch of assholes sticking it to the man? Just bring a friend. This feels like a movie best enjoyed with others. A good movie. Not a great movie or a bad movie, but a good movie. I am in no mood to see it again, but I say it was worth the price of admission.